American Sniper: Chris Kyle

History, Military 4 Minutes

From HISTORY.COM:

Unlike any American before him, Chris Kyle performed his job with pinpoint accuracy. As a sharpshooter serving in Iraq, that job had deadly results. The Pentagon has credited Kyle with over 160 kills. The actual number could be almost double.

The most lethal sniper in American history was the son of a church deacon and a Sunday-school teacher. Growing up in Texas, Kyle hunted with his father and brother. After two years of college and working as a ranch hand, the 24-year-old Kyle quit school and joined the elite Navy SEALs—although he hated water. “If I see a puddle,” he told Time magazine, “I will walk around it.”

After serving in a number of classified missions, Kyle was deployed with members of platoon “Charlie” of SEAL Team 3 to fight in the Iraq War. After landing on the al-Faw Peninsula at the war’s outset in March 2003, the SEALs joined the Marines on their march north toward the capital city of Baghdad. Stationed on rooftops, Kyle and his fellow SEALs protected Marines squads going door to door from insurgent ambushes.

After entering the city of Nasiriya in the war’s early days, Kyle stationed himself atop a building seized by the SEALs. Through the scope of a bolt-action .300 Winchester Magnum, Kyle watched as a Marine convoy approached. Fifty yards away, he suddenly saw the door of a small house open and a woman step outside with her child. As she neared the Marines, Kyle watched through the crosshairs as the woman reached beneath her robe and pulled out a yellow grenade.

“Take a shot,” ordered Kyle’s platoon chief.

Kyle hesitated as the Marines continued to march closer.

“Shoot!” cried the chief.

Kyle squeezed the trigger twice. The woman fell dead to the ground along with the exploding grenade, which did no harm to the Marines. It was Kyle’s first kill with a sniper rifle. Many more deadly shots would be fired, but the hesitation would never return.

“It was my duty to shoot, and I don’t regret it. The woman was already dead. I was just making sure she didn’t take any Marines with her,” Kyle wrote in his 2012 combat memoir, “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History.”

Kyle’s sole mission in Iraq was to save his fellow servicemen, and he proved to be such a deadly sniper that Iraqi insurgents placed a $20,000 bounty on the head of the man they called “Al-Shaitan Ramad,” or “the Devil of Ramadi.” To Kyle’s fellow soldiers, however, he was known as “The Legend.”

The 160 kills credited to Kyle are more than for any sniper in American history, but the Navy SEAL told D Magazine that he wished instead that he could have calculated the number of people he saved. “That’s the number I’d care about,” he said. “I’d put that everywhere.”

After Kyle’s initial deployment to Iraq in 2003, he returned to fight in Fallujah in 2004, Ramadi in 2006 and Baghdad in 2008. On each tour of duty, the fighting grew fiercer and Kyle’s job grew harder. Insurgents who once carried guns now toted rocket-propelled grenades. Kyle still proved a skilled marksman even killing an enemy fighter 1.2 miles—or 21 football fields—away on a single shot.

When Kyle’s wife, Taya, told him their marriage could be over if he re-enlisted, the sniper reluctantly left the Navy with an honorable discharge in 2009 after a decade of service. He had earned a pair of Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars after surviving two gunshot wounds and six IED attacks.

“I loved what I did. If circumstances were different—if my family didn’t need me—I’d be back in a heartbeat,” Kyle wrote in his autobiography. “I had the time of my life being a SEAL.” Kyle struggled with the transition to civilian life in his roles as husband and father to his two young children. He found that although he left the war, the war didn’t leave him. He drank heavily, suffered bouts of depression and stopped working out.

Kyle felt anchorless without a mission and the camaraderie of his fellow SEALs. But he discovered a new call to duty by helping ailing veterans suffering from the physical and psychological scars of war. After seeing the therapeutic benefits of exercise in his own life, he helped to create the FITCO Cares Foundation in 2011 to provide exercise equipment and counseling to veterans. The following year he published “American Sniper,” which became a New York Times bestseller and the basis for the blockbuster film. Kyle donated his share of the book profits to families of colleagues who had died in battle and to a charity to help wounded veterans.

Kyle’s final mission to help his fellow veterans would tragically be his last. The former Navy SEAL often brought troubled veterans along with him to shoot at targets as a way for them to better connect. On February 2, 2013, he invited Eddie Ray Routh, a 25-year-old Marine veteran who had served in Iraq and Haiti, to a shooting range in Glen Rose, Texas. Routh, who reportedly suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, allegedly shot and killed the 38-year-old Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield at point-blank range.

To accommodate the mourners, Kyle’s funeral was held inside the Dallas Cowboys football stadium, where the veteran’s flag-draped coffin rested on the 50-yard line. For miles on end, crowds lined the route of the funeral procession to say goodbye to an American soldier who had survived years of combat only to be gunned down in the country he served to protect.

SOURCE: Christopher Klein History.com

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Published by pat frederick

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105 thoughts on “American Sniper: Chris Kyle”

  1. Morning All!

    how great it feels to sleep in your own bed!!

    i think the mattress on the bed in mom’s spare room is probably one of the first mattresses ever made…lol…

    temps are only 32* and the sky is turning pink with purple and gold streaks.

    see what unfolds today.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Good Morning, Miss Pat. I’m probably going to sleep in my own bed tonight unless the wheelchair guy is planning to come tomorrow – in that case, I’ll come back this evening after hauling stuff to my house, picking up stuff, getting the mail, hitting Walmart and the grocery store. I do hate to be on the road today (solar eclipse, possible cabal EMP/bioweapon, etc. terror attack day)

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Good Morning GA!
        wow…be careful on the road. some people will be a danger to others simply by not pulling over the watch anything happening.
        you have a busy day ahead of you!

        Like

        1. We are far from the path of the eclipse. But I will be careful. I plan on taking the National Safety group’s defensive driving course that will reduce my insurance rates and may help me to avoid accidents.

          Liked by 1 person

            1. I have decided not to go today. It’s not critical that I do any of that today. Next Monday may be better – unless Øbastid and the cabal stage a real violent insurrection to take over our country.

              Liked by 1 person

    2. Morning! Guess who was sleeping on my chair when I got up? Yep – the Wheezer! I stepped out and put his bowl down, then came back inside. But he didn’t eat – instead, he moved from the chair to the step stool, and the next time I looked, he was gone. Presumably to do his business (thankfully, NOT on my patio!) and he will probably be back after he makes his “rounds,” I expect. Temp is 42 here, the wind finally dropped yesterday – got pretty hairy for a while there – I was keeping an eye on the dead cottonwood tree but, thankfully, no limbs came down. Cloudy skies, however, and I’m sure I won’t be able to see much of this eclipse but it makes no difference to me.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Morning Filly!
        glad to see your summer guest arrived early…lol
        the ducks are back in the pond–they disappeared for about a week…coincidentally the pond was higher and muddier then too

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Trump is compromising with the left here – as is Melania, who is having an event one day soon with ‘LBGTQXYZ’ Republicans.

      Liked by 1 person

  7. it ABSOLUTELY DOES steal our representation and gives it to illegals. we should all have standing to sue to change the census counting.
    FTA
    “Is the wide-open border helping Democrats get more congressional seats?” Maria Bartiromo asked Senator Vance.

    “It’s a huge issue Maria, something we need to talk about more,” Senator Vance said.

    “California has between 3 and 5 congressional seats they shouldn’t have, why? Because the census counts illegal aliens when it hands out congressional representatives, so when you import millions of people into this country illegally, you are actually destroying the American people’s power and their own democracy. You are taking away congressional representation from American citizens and giving it to illegal aliens,” Senator Vance continued.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/senator-jd-vance-sounds-alarm-how-bidens-border/

    Like

  8. the only appropriate remedy for this kind of behavior is to stop ALL speakers from speaking at the college. and no cultural events either. shut it all down. either EVERYONE can speak or NO ONE can speak. you do NOT give in to bullies.

    Georgia Students Shut Down Congressman In Latest “Deplatforming”
    APR 07, 2024

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/georgia-students-shut-down-congressman-latest-deplatforming

    We have another successful “deplatforming” of a speaker at a university this week after Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) had to be removed from an event at the University of Georgia.

    Like

  13. while we were visiting Mom, the local news was discussing the upcoming eclipse–and they were warning the viewers of a possible significant temperature change while the sun was obscured. Mom’s reply? like every night when the sun goes down? never thought the “temporary” drop in temps was scary then and i’m not gonna think it’s scary now!

    lol

    Liked by 1 person

      1. no I haven’t. i had mountains on laundry to do today…and yesterday i needed to decompress…lol
        I got a blood sugar meter for mom and over the weekend I taught her how to use it. her podiatrist insists she’s diabetic and yet her regular doctor hasn’t said so to her at all.
        sigh…anyway this morning I’ve fielded 4 calls already about the meter–do I remember where she put? what’s the little blue thing with the needle on it for? and so on.
        i gently reminded her that i wrote down the instructions and tucked them in the case with the meter and the strips. then she found it and read them and she thought she’d be okay…lol
        i do not believe she is diabetic–her readings do not support that in any way, but she has a doctor appt in 2 weeks and she wants to be armed with some concrete numbers to show him. then she will confront the podiatrist.
        I planned to sit after supper and open the package! i am excited to see them! When i was cleaning out some of the basement, we found 2 9-11 newspapers my Dad brought home from the Morning Call!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I did just open the package…OH WOW FILLY!!!

        those books look incredible!! i briefly glanced thru the pictures—STUNNING!

        which do you recommend i read thru first???

        I was showing hubby some of the pictures…he was just as stunned as I was.

        THANK YOU so much for these! i will treasure them!

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I was so hoping you would feel that way about them, too! IDT it matters which one is first – for me, it was all just amazing, especially considering what we thought was actually happening. Somehow, they became even more poignant after discovering the horrible truth.

          Liked by 1 person

  19. “The TikTok Ban — Pardon Me for Not Trusting the Uniparty”

    ERIK CARLSON, APR 08, 2024

    EXCERPT: “I’m sure there are plenty of people, especially in the normy world, who find me pretty darn annoying because I question most everything I hear; I don’t give my undying trust to the talking heads on TV or in DC.

    When a person of authority or a person considered to be an expert says something, I don’t just accept it as the Gospel truth because they are sitting behind a news desk or wearing a white lab coat. I’m always trying to figure out if there is more to the story, more layers that need to be uncovered before coming to a conclusion.

    I try to figure out if the messenger of the information has an incentive to lie or mislead.

    Some may consider it paranoid, but I’m not going to go out and buy a miracle product just because some guy on a late-night infomercial said, “but wait, there’s more”, and I’m not going to give my trust to people who have proven over decades to be untrustworthy. I suppose one could say I’m not brainwashed; I’m a bit of a freethinker. I’ve broken free of the conditioning that causes one to have an overwhelming desire to fit in…..”

    https://badlands.substack.com/p/the-tiktok-ban

    Liked by 1 person

      1. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve heard a chopper here in the entire 11 years I’ve lived here! LOL – it’s about the same for small planes. But I also rarely see contrails so there is that.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. I’m sure I won’t notice any difference – it will probably just seem like the clouds thickened up a bit since it has been cloudy now for a while. We had a brief hour or so of bright sunshine but that’s it.

      Liked by 1 person

  21. human composting?

    ncxplant

    April 8, 2024 12:54 pm

    Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs of Arizona has just signed a bill that will make human compositing legal in the state of Arizona.

    Hobbs just signed House Bill 2081, known as the ‘Grandpa in the Garden Bill,’ into law.
    This bill will now allow people to turn their loved ones into soil in a process called human composting.

    Human composting or natural organic reduction is the process of “breaking down human remains into usable compost or soil that can be returned to the bereaved family or contributed to a conservation area.”

    gatewaypundit.com

    Like

    1. Kind of a gruesome thought but, then, again, I plan on being cremated, with my ashes spread on a horse farm or racetrack. Doesn’t make a lot of difference, in reality, about what happens to the physical body. One of my aunts donated her body to science – she had a rare liver disease that caused continuous tumors.

      Liked by 1 person

  29. “Judge Reggie Walton: Political Speech Commissar — Federal judges in DC have used their unaccountable bully pulpits to literally bully January 6 defendants and trash talk Donald Trump from the bench. But Judge Reggie Walton just jumped the shark.”

    JULIE KELLY, APR 08, 2024

    EXCERPT: “Reggie Walton was hopping mad—again.

    During a court hearing last year, Walton, a 75-year-old senior judge on the U.S. district court in Washington, fumed over an interview an individual named Daniel Goodwyn had given to then Fox News host Tucker Carlson to describe the government’s harsh treatment of January 6 defendants.

    Goodwyn, a Texas man who suffers from autism spectrum disorder, entered the Capitol building on the afternoon of January 6 and remained inside the doorway for less than a minute. Goodwyn committed no violence, destroyed no property, and assaulted no one. Nonetheless, FBI counterterrorism agents arrested Goodwin in January 2021; the Department of Justice indicted Goodwyn the following month on felony obstruction and four common misdemeanors.

    He pleaded guilty to one low-level trespassing count in December 2022.

    But Goodwyn’s real crime, according to Walton, was appearing on a cable show hosted by the most influential commentator on the Right a few months earlier. (In the DOJ’s sentencing memo asking for 90 days in prison and three years’ probation, assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Haag cited the March 2023 Carlson interview numerous times as justification for an excessive sentence on a minor offense: “Goodwyn’s interview on Tucker Carlson Tonight indicates that he does not take his actions, nor the impact of those actions, seriously.”)

    Calling Carlson a “lightning rod” and someone who “has said and done things that I think clearly have been divisive,” Walton—who like many Carlson critics probably never watched the top-rated evening show at the time—declared his own war on political “disinformation.”

    In addition to ordering Goodwyn to serve 60 days in prison—he had already served 12 days behind bars in pretrial detention and spent more than a year under house arrest—Walton instructed probation officers to scour Goodwyn’s computer for political wrongthink. “[Since] he has used social media in order to provide what I consider to be disinformation about this situation, I would require that he permit his computer use to be subject to monitoring and inspection by the probation department to see if he is, in fact, disseminating information of the nature that relates to the events that resulted in what occurred on January 6th of 2021,” Walton said during the June 2023 sentencing hearing.

    Walton blamed “misinformation that is disseminated to the American public” for the “discord that now exists in our country in reference to the presidential election and what occurred on January 6th.”

    And as is the case with every self-appointed commissar using his authority to silence dissent, Walton proceeded to spread his own amount of disinformation about January 6 and the treatment of Capitol protesters, i.e., supporters of Donald Trump. 

    Walton claimed that “several police officers, because of the violent nature of what they experienced have committed suicide, [and] another officer who died as a result of the trauma he experienced,” referring to the death of Brian Sicknick, who tragically died of a stroke caused by blood clots near his brain on January 7, 202. (Carlson previously had aired surveillance video showing Sicknick walking around the Capitol seemingly uninjured after being hit with pepper spray that afternoon.) There is no evidence the officers who committed suicide even months after the protest did so as a result of the four-hour disturbance on January 6.

    Walton also insisted “there is just no proof” that the presidential election was stolen and lamented the fact that “so many other of our fellow Americans has (sic) accepted the false impression” about voting fraud in 2020….”

    https://www.declassified.live/p/judge-reggie-walton-political-speech

    Liked by 1 person

              6. for the most part. after i dug us out of his debt that i was responsible for since the judge hadn’t gotten around to signing the divorce decree.
                but after that…yeah…things got better and better

                Liked by 1 person

  33. Sinclair Filling Station, about mid thirties (I remember them being all over NE years ago!

    “These  portraits were taken in 1894. The photo on the left is very rare because 19th century people never smiled for pictures. That Native American girl was named O-o-dee of the Kiowa people in the Oklahoma Territory. Her friend on the right not smiling was named Mabonia, also Kiowa. They were wearing dresses decorated with elk teeth with their names embroidered in the textile next to them.”

    Liked by 1 person

  34. well it was cloudy here most of the day and the it got a little darker–still cloudy–and now it’s a little lighter–still cloudy.

    if i booked a vacation to see “this”? i’d want my $$ back!

    lol

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I didn’t see any change whatsoever. LOL – but I didn’t expect to. I watched the video on TV – good enough for me!

      Liked by 1 person

  35. WeThePeople2016
    WeThePeople2016
    April 8, 2024 3:31 pm

    Trump is going after Lindsey with a series of Truths right now.

    Senator Lindsey Graham is doing a great disservice to the Republican Party, and to our Country. At first he wanted no Abortions under any circumstances, then he was up to 6 weeks, where you’re allowed Abortion, now he’s up to 15 weeks, where you’re allowed Abortion, but what he doesn’t understand, or perhaps he does, is the Radical Left Democrats, who are destroying our Country, will never approve anything that he or the Republicans want. They love this Issue, and they want to keep it going for as long as Republicans will allow them to do so. Terminating Roe v. Wade was, according to all Legal Scholars, a Great Event, but sometimes with Great Events come difficulties. Many Good Republicans lost Elections because of this Issue, and people like Lindsey Graham, that are unrelenting, are handing Democrats their dream of the House, Senate, and perhaps even the Presidency…

    https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/112237096470668872

    Liked by 1 person

    1. WeThePeople2016

      WeThePeople2016

      April 8, 2024 3:32 pm

      Page 2: By allowing the States to make their decision, and hoping that most Republicans running for Office will have the sense, although they must always follow their heart, to require the EXCEPTIONS for Rape, Incest, and Life of the Mother, we have taken the Abortion Issue largely out of play. When the Supreme Court had the courage to do the right thing LEGALLY, and terminate Roe v. Wade, all of those people, including Lindsey Graham and Marjorie Dannenfelser of Susan B. Anthony that were “hardliners”, one day after the Victory, were gone and of absolutely no help, as the Democrats staged rallies and won Elections they should never have won. Lindsey, Marjorie, and others fought for years, unsuccessfully, until I came along and got the job done. Then they were gone, never to be heard from again, until now. We cannot let our Country suffer any further damage by losing Elections on an issue that should always have been decided by the States, and now will be!

      https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/112237095868339643

      Liked by 1 person

      1. WeThePeople2016

        WeThePeople2016

        April 8, 2024 3:33 pm

        Senator Lindsey Graham should spend more time focusing on all of the many people being killed because of our now non-existent Border, and the millions of people dying in senseless, never-ending Wars that he constantly favors and promotes, and should spend less time on taking away our Great Roe v. Wade Victory of sending a complicated and controversial Issue back to the States where, according to Highly Respected Legal Scholars on both sides, it belongs. The Democrats are thrilled with Lindsey, because they want this Issue to simmer for as long a period of time as possible. They are destroying our Country, and they don’t want to talk about Inflation, a Bad Economy, the Horrible Open Border, Rigged Elections, Afghanistan, Ukraine/Russia, or the Attack on Israel, all of which would never have happened if I were President. Great job Lindsey!

        https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/112237091365034673

        Liked by 1 person

  36. dis b*tch is salivating like the animal she is…

    Kyle Becker

    @kylenabecker

    JUST IN: Letitia James Poised to Begin Seizing Trump’s Properties Attorney General Letitia James is poised to begin seizing Donald Trump’s properties as an insurance company will not be permitted to post a $175 million bond for Trump while he appeals a fraud judgment. Knight Specialty Insurance is currently unable to post the bond on Trump’s behalf, attorney Dave Kingman noted. According to Kingman, as a consequence, New York Attorney General Letitia James will be empowered to initiate enforcement procedures against Donald Trump’s properties. A New York court rejected Knight Specialty’s application and requested further information about its financial support. The business submitted new documentation on April 4. Trump must post the $175 million bond to prevent James from initiating enforcement procedures, after a court fined the former president $454 million in February for “illegally” inflating the worth of his assets. Donald Trump’s exorbitant penalty for the common real estate practice raises serious concerns about “selective and vindictive prosecution.”

    Liked by 1 person

  37. Just The News: “A New York appeals court on Monday rejected a bid from former President Donald Trump to delay his trial in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against him.

    Bragg has charged Trump with falsifying business records in connection with a 2016 payment his then-attorney, Michael Cohen, made to Stormy Daniels. He has pleaded not guilty and contends that the case is part of a broader political witch hunt against him.

    Trump had asked the court to delay his April 15 trial while he asked for a change of venue in the case, which the court denied, the Associated Press reported. He further sought the reversal of a gag order that Judge Juan Merchan had imposed that restricted his public statements on the case, its relevant parties, and the family members of Bragg and the judge.

    The court’s Monday ruling does not appear to address the gag order request and the AP reported that a decision on that matter may come later.

    Trump has heavily criticized Merchan throughout the process and twice asked him to recuse himself from the case, highlighting his daughter’s employment with a left-wing organization. He declined to recuse himself in both instances.”

    Liked by 1 person

  38. 04/08/24 • COVID • BIG PHARMA › NEWS

    “Editors of Top Science Journals to Testify Before House Pandemic Committee, as Critics Call for End of Taxpayer Funding for ‘Corrupt’ Research — The U.S. House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic invited the editors of three major science journals to testify on the relationship between their publications and the federal government.”

    By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

    magazine journals with a picture of the house of representatives at sunset

    EXCERPT: “Amid controversy over censorship in peer-reviewed journals, the editors of three major science journals last week received invitations to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on the relationship between their publications and the federal government.

    Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chair of the subcommittee, sent the letters to the editors-in-chief of The Lancet, Nature and Science, requesting their testimony for an April 16 hearing titled “Academic Malpractice: Examining the Relationship Between Scientific Journals, the Government, and Peer Review.”

    According to Wenstrup’s office, the hearing seeks to examine “whether these journals granted the federal government inappropriate access into the scientific review or publishing process,” noting that the journals had previously communicated with Drs. Anthony Fauci, Francis Collins and other health officials.

    Nature Medicine published the now infamous “Proximal Origin” paper in March 2020. The paper, which claimed COVID-19 had zoonotic, or natural, origins was subsequently used in attempts to censor proponents of the “lab-leak theory” of the virus’s origin.

    In a press release, Wenstrup said: “Millions of people worldwide relied on Science, Nature, and The Lancet to provide scientifically accurate and impartial research during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “However, documents show that the federal government may have censored and manipulated the sacred scientific review processes at these journals to progress their preferred narrative about the origins of COVID-19.”

    Cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough welcomed the announcement of the hearing. He told The Defender:….”

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/top-science-journal-editors-testify-house-pandemic-committee-covid/

    Liked by 1 person

  39. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

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